Maddening Innocence
by CaptainWolfe11
Summary: Elune might be what some people call a miscreant. She's a thief, a mage, and a follower of Sheogorath. After being shoved into a certain jail cell with an innocent, do-good Wood Elf by the name of Dione, she is forced on a journey with her to save Tamriel from Mehrunes Dagon. Not only that, but she's called upon by her Lord to be the Champion of his realm. (Two Heroes of Kvatch)
1. The Emperor Might be Crazy

_**A/N: So, I found this old NaNoWriMo story hanging around in the Cloud, and I decided to upload a few chapters and see what everyone thinks! If you like it and let me know, I'll post the rest and finish it!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I just own Dione and Elune.**_

I huffed as I pushed myself away from the cold uneven floor, aware of how hard it was on my bones to do so. The metal footsteps of the guard retreated into the distance, and in an instant, I was on my feet, grabbing the metal bars. They were just as cold as the floor, but had an unpleasant coating of grime on them.

The iron back of the Imperial Watchman disappeared as he climbed the stairs. I slipped my hand into my shirt and removed the Skeleton Key from where I had hidden it, a slow grin forming on my face.

"Pale skin, snotty expression. You must be a Breton." The harsh black voice shot at me from across the way. There, hidden among the backdrop of bleary gray walls was a Dunmer. His red, snake-like eyes narrowed and he snorted. "The masters of magicka, right? Hmph. You're nothing but a stuck-up harlot with cheap parlor tricks." He waved his hand around to indicate his cell. "Go ahead, try your magicka in here. Let's see you make those bars disappear." Ridiculous Dark Elf, didn't he know there was no spell for disintegrating matter? It was one of Galeron's established concepts of magic.

The Dunmer interrupted my thoughts again. "No? What's the matter? Not so powerful now, are you Breton? You're not leaving this prison 'til they throw your body in the lake." He donned an expression of nonchalance, looking at his dirt crusted nails. "Oh, that's right. You're going to die in here, Breton! You're going to die."

My hands gripped the bars, once again feeling the sickly decay. How many things had touched these bars, what kind of things? Slowly, I removed them. "You don't even know the extent of my 'parlour tricks.' You see...I have a lockpick that can never break." I smiled, holding up the Skeleton Key, secure between my forefinger and my thumb.

"Ha!" He groused. "Cheap talk! I don't see how a weakling like you could possess such an artifact. How old are you anyway? Still drink your mother's milk?" At my clenched jaw, he laughed, eyes glinting terribly. "And what is with that ostentatious Alteration spell? Put a little gold in your hair to get some attention? Gave yourself a different eye? You Bretons are all the same."

I held my head up a little higher, looking down my nose at him. "I received this key from a Daedra Lord, and for your information, I was born looking like this."

The Dunmer cackled. "Oh, so you were born a freak show? That is so much better."

I clenched my fists, and the Skeleton Key dug into my skin. What could I say to this ash-faced fetcher to get him to shut up? He was still laughing, and I whirled around in frustration, back against the gelatinous bars.

There, sitting at the rotten table with a polite manner was a Bosmer woman. She sipped something from a pewter cup—water, presumably- and glanced up at me. "Hello." Her smile was simple and measured. Though she wore the same shirt and tatty pants as I, she looked a lot more out of place in them. "Don't listen to him. He stops talking in a few hours if you ignore him."

A few hours? In the name of Sheogorath, how was she still sane? I crossed my arms. "I plan to get out of here."

She glanced at my hand. "Yes, with your lockpick." Her narrow eyes flicked up at me, calm. "If you're caught, it will only increase your sentence." Oh, great, a model citizen.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Yes, but I'd much rather be sleeping in my own bed."

She blinked, and took another sip from her cup. This time, I did roll my eyes, turning around and inserting my pick into the lock. I could feel some tumblers move as I wiggled the metal pick.

A snort. "What are you doing? A slaughterfish could lockpick better than that!"

A growl tickled my throat, and I felt my cheeks blush. Maybe I was really very bad at picking a lock...but at least the Key wouldn't break.

The Key slipped again and the Dunmer huffed with amusement. "What in the name of the Tribunal are you even doing?"

I yanked the pick out and narrowed my eyes. "You know what, Ashborn? I-"

A loud thud echoed through the halls. The Dunmer was silent for once, glancing up the stairs as I was. There was silence. Maybe it was nothing? Then came the measured steps of guards, and the sound of clinking armor.

The Dark Elf grinned. "The guards are coming, for you! Hahahahahahahaha!" He cackled, grasping his stomach with sick mirth. He stepped back into the shadows of his cell, and the last thing I saw of him was his two red eyes.

The guards were visible now, having descended the steep stairs. The one in the lead stepped towards my cell, eyes hard and frigid. She growled and threw a hand up. "Who put prisoners in this cell?"

The guard behind her stammered. "Uhh...usual mix up with the watch?" He seemed to implore her to accept his excuse.

She simply rolled her eyes and then glared at me. "Step back, Prisoner."

I put my hands up, moving backwards. "Okay, okay." I muttered. "I have a name, you know..." I looked over my shoulder to make sure I wouldn't trip on anything.

There was a shuffle and a thud, and suddenly, the Wood Elf was standing, stock still and pale. I glanced at the floor in alarm. She had risen so quickly, her chair had toppled over. I followed her gaze to see an elderly man, dressed in rich robes, with...the Emperor's Amulet around his neck.

Oh Gods, was this the pardoning day?

"M-My lord." The Elf sputtered. Her eyes were wide, and her pale cheeks were beginning to glow pink. She really was a model citizen, wasn't she?

"Stay put, prisoners." Said a male guard, calmly. The other one, the one who had barked at me, was feeling all of the bricks on the right wall.

That was when the Emperor came towards us. "You two..." He uttered, voice like torn silk. "You are the ones from my dreams."

His...his dreams? I looked over at the elf incredulously. What could we possibly have in common? Feeling the silence stretch like a sharp lute string, I had to cut into it somehow. "Um...Okay?"

The Emperor smiled. "The Nine have placed you here. I go to my death, and you two must carry my burden."

What in Aetherius was this? Were these armed soldiers escorting him to the Pelagius Ward or something?

The wall suddenly shook, and a large opening grew out of what had previously been stone. "Sire, we must keep moving."

The Emperor smiled again, and nodded, following the woman down into the dark secret passage.

Was this even happening, or was Sheogorath just playing a ridiculous trick on me?

"Looks like this is your lucky day, you two. Just don't interfere with us." With that, the last guard descended into the hole.

They were gone so quick that only the gaping hole in the wall spoke to the fact that the Emperor had just been in our cell.

I blinked, the shrugged. If this was a game of the Madgod, I might as well play it. "Fine by me. Won't have to flee all the guards this way."

The Elf stepped forward, eyes wide. "But if we're caught escaping, we'll only make things worse for ourselves."

She was only trying to be reasonable, but I still rolled my eyes. "Did you hear the Emperor and that Guard? We're basically pardoned. Now do you want to eat prison food and chat up that Ashborn for the next week or do you want out?"

She paused, and then looked up into the meager ray of light that the cell window offered. She sighed. "After you."

I stepped into the inky black with a magelight in my open palm. She followed, but I could barely hear her footsteps. She would make a good thief. "What were you in for, eh?" I asked over my shoulder.

When she replied, it was with uncertainty. "It was a mix up, I'm sure. The Guards seized me and said they'd been looking for me. When they threw me in prison, I asked the Guard to take a message to his Superior. They must have just been confused...it's hard for humans to tell Elves apart sometimes."

I inwardly snorted. How could one remain so tolerant of the legal system when the legal system had accidentally thrown them in a cold jail for no apparent reason.

"And you?" Her voice was tentative, and far away. I turned to make sure she was still close, only to find her a few feet behind me, her long face and pointed ears illuminated by magelight.

I shifted my weight from one leg to another. "I'm...just a bad thief." Considering my response, and finding in accurate enough, I turned around and continued walking.

"I see." Her voice held enough moral judgment to make me shake my head slightly. We walked on in silence for a while after that.

We came to an open space with much more light. It was littered with red robed bodies, and the body of the woman soldier. I crouched by one of the robed men and fished through his pockets.

The elf let out a gasp. "You're taking their things?"

I turned around and gave her a dumbfounded look. "Um...yeah?" I gestured to their unmoving bodies. "Do they need them?"

She still didn't look convinced. "It seems wrong to take things when you can't even ask them."

I rolled my eyes, turning to the dead man. "Excuse me, dead sir, may I take the items you are physically unable to use anymore?" I grabbed his arm and waved it around in the air as I imitated his voice.

"'Why of course you can! I have no need of them any lon-"

The hand clamped itself around my wrist and the man let out a low guttural cry, bloody face rising up to scream at me.

"SHEOGORATH'S BLOOD!" I screeched, fire blazing out of my fingertips. The man screamed again, robes catching on fire and turning him into lumps of black waste.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I jumped, scrambling upwards.

"Calm down!" It was the Wood Elf. Her hands were held out between her and me, as if to calm me, or to protect herself. It was the loudest she had spoken so far.

Shakily, I brushed my hair out of my face. "Okay, okay, you win you win you win. No taking things from 'dead' bodies."

She laughed, although it was only half hearted.

"What should I call you?" I suddenly blurted. Maybe it was the near death experience, but it was strange to me that we didn't even know each other's names.

She glanced up at me, and then held out a hand. "Dione Felerys."

I shook hands with her. "Elune Gervail."

* * *

"Rats. Rats. Oh, and more Rats." I frowned as I stepped over the blood soaked fur of the skeever Dione had just killed. Her arrow was buried deep into it's skull. She was quite handy with a bow, and seemed to have no qualms killing animals.

She ignored my complaints, materializing beside me with her bow facing down, another arrow knocked. "Do you think we are getting close to the exit?"

I shrugged. "I hope so. I think the worst of it was that Goblin Den."

She nodded, lips pursed. Her shoulder was probably still aching from where I had tried to heal her. We pressed through the dark, my arm aching from the effort of holding up the magelight continuously.

We had scavenged some useful potions and weapons in the caves. Dione had found her rusty old bow and a quiver of arrows, while I had found an iron shortsword. When my magicka ran out, all I really knew what to do with it was hit people.

We crawled through a winding tunnel and then...salvation! "Look!" I cried, pointing, but she had already seen the hole in the wall. She smiled gratefully and we jumped down into the Imperial Sewers. Goodbye caves, hello paved ground.

She threw back an arm. "Wait." She cocked her head to the side.

At first I didn't hear anything, but then I could make out the voices too. "The Emperor's guards." She nodded, and we crept forward. Sure enough, down below the guards were walking into the chamber.

"We should join up with them."

I grabbed her arm before she could move forward. "Are you kidding? They told us to stay away from them!"

"Shhh, what's that?" Asked a guard.

"More assassins!" An arrow whizzed past my face and I screamed.

"No, no! Dammit we're the prisoners!" I yelped.

The arrows stopped. After a moment of distant whispering, a guard yelled, "Come down here!"

Looking at Dione with an expression that read 'I told you so', I jumped down onto the lower level. She was just a second behind me.

A man stepped forward, face pulled into a scowl. "It's the prisoners. We should kill them, sire, they may be working with the assassins." He unsheathed a long, blood-stained sword. It was slightly curved and thin, like I'd never seen before.

I held up my hands. "Whoa, excuse me?"

"No." Ordered the Emperor. "They are not aligned with them." He turned to address us. "You two, step forward. I would prefer not to have to shout."

Dione stepped forward without hesitation, towards the old man. I frowned. Why in the world did the Emperor—if he really was the Emperor, and not some decoy—want to talk with us? I followed Dione, foot stubbing itself on a broken off bit of pillar. I stumbled, and someone caught me. It was the other Blade.

"Careful." He said quietly. I nodded. Careful? Down here? After everything that had happened today, he was telling me to care to not trip on rocks? I suppressed a smile and carefully picked my way over to the Emperor.

The old man looked at me with intense eyes. "I wonder, what sign were you born under?"

What sign? I had been born in frostfall, under the sign of the... "Serpent."

He looked to Dione. "Lover." She supplied with a small duck of her head.

The Emperor laughed. "A Lover and a Serpent. Yes, you two certainly are the ones who will see the dawn of the sun's companion. You will banish the darkness together."

Banish darkness? I looked to Dione, who—thankfully—had as much confusion on her face as me.

"We should get going." Groused the first Blade, the man who had wanted to kill us. He brushed past me roughly, and I stumbled out of his way. The Emperor followed him into another passage, and Dione stepped in behind him.

I brushed off my shoulder and glared at his back. "'Kill them, they could be working with the assassins.'" I mocked in a high voice.

A chuckle sounded behind me. Oh! The other man. My cheeks warmed and I turned to him, feeling an urge to place my hand on the back of my neck.

"Don't blame Glenroy, he's just...taking the deaths of the Emperor's sons hard. He was supposed to protect them."

I blinked. "His sons are dead?"

The Blade gestured for us to keep moving as we talked. I fell in step slightly behind him, and he turned his face back toward me as he went on. "That's why we're getting the Emperor out of here. Assassins killed all of his sons and are trying to kill him. The escape route just happened to pass through the cell you and your friend were in."

Well, it seemed it was our lucky day. "Are you in the Legion?"

He shook his head. "Gods, no. We're the personal protectors of the Emperor, the Blades."

That explained the armor, which really did look different from the Legion's. "I see."

In front of us, the narrow passage flew open into a cavernous space. It was lit up by the stringy green light coming from the small windows at the top of the room. They seemed to mock us, letting us know just how close and yet unobtainable freedom was.

"I don't like the look of this." Glenroy stepped forward and surveyed the area, looking around into all corners before he held up a hand to gesture that we could join him. We went down the stairs onto the lower level.

Baurus let out a breath beside me, and he was looking at the gate to our right. "We just might make it."

Glenroy stepped up to the gate and then gasped. "The gate, it's barred from the other side." Everyone suddenly froze, and it took me a moment to process what that meant. Dione took her bow from her back and knocked an arrow. I heard the dull squeak of tightening leather as Baurus gripped the hilt of his sword with force. "It's a trap!"

There was a clatter and a thud back from the way we came. Was that sound made by people? Suddenly, Baurus grabbed my arm and we were running into the other side passage.

"Dammit, a dead end." Glenroy's eyes were glinting, and he looked back into the clearing. He drew his sword and stepped out of our sight. "For the Emperor!" His faraway voice shouted.

Baurus, who had still been holding my arm, pushed me closer to the Emperor. "You two, guard the Emperor with your life!" With one last desperate glance at his lord and charge, he left the room to join the fight.

The sounds of battle were distant, but they were growing closer and closer.

"Elune..." I turned to look at Dione, who's eyes were wide. She looked to the Emperor, and I followed her gaze.

His eyes were closed, and his face was lifted towards the ceiling.

"My time has come." His rich deep voice filled our little alcove. "A tongue shriller than all the music calls me." His eyes opened, and he looked down at me. The blue irises shimmered with emotion. Lifting his hands to his neck, he removed the Amulet of Kings. He grabbed my hands and pressed the glowing red jewel into them.

What was he even doing? I was holding the Amulet of Kings?! "Take the Amulet of Kings. Find Jauffre, find my last son." He turned from me, eyes heavy, and faced Dione. He took her hands in his. "Find him, and close shut the jaws of Oblivion."

Suddenly, everything happened at once. The Emperor grabbed Dione by the shoulders and shoved her over towards me. I caught her, but just as I looked up again, my vision was stained with red.

An assassin jumped forward, and Emperor Uriel tore like a curtain under his mace.

Dione screamed and shot a wayward arrow. It missed, and the man advanced. "I don't know who you pretty ladies are, but you picked a bad day to take up the mantle of the Septims."

His mace rose in the air and I let out of my hand a Disintegrate spell. He stumbled, looking at his empty hand in confusion. It was just enough time for Dione to shoot an arrow through his neck. He fell, and gurgled for a few moments until he was finally silent.

"Sire...sire." Gasped Dione as she fell on her knees. With great care, her slender hand cupped a bloodstained cheek. "Oh no..."

Baurus flew in, feet skidding on the rough stone. He took one look at the Emperor and leaned back against the wall, hand covering his eyes. A dull groan issued from his chest. "We've failed...I've failed..." He stumbled forward and onto his knees, much like Dione. With a heavy hand, he laid his palm over the dead man's heart. "The Amulet...The Amulet of Kings, it's gone!"

I remembered to speak. "No, no, it's not." I held it out awkwardly into the air. "He gave it to me."

Baurus stood and moved towards me, hand out as if he was going to grab the Amulet. He thought better of it, apparently, as the hand withdrew and his gaze focused on me. "He saw something in you two, both of you." Dione looked up to Baurus from where she knelt on the ground. "They say it's the Dragonblood that runs through every Septim's veins."

I looked down at the Amulet, and it seemed to stare at me. Why had he given me this? "Jauffre, he wants us to take this to a man named Jauffre."

Baurus sighed and rubbed his forehead with a hand. "He's the Grandmaster of our Order, though you wouldn't know it by looking at him. He lives quietly as a monk at Weynon Priory."

I nodded. "Weynon. Where is that?" Was I crazy? Was I actually agreeing to this?

"Outside of Chorrol."

Dione stood, and she was no longer shaky or dismayed. She simply stood tall and strong. "He also mentioned another son."

Baurus turned to her, incredulous. "Another heir?" He seemed to think for a moment before shrugging his shoulders, as if deciding that today was too strange to start questioning everything now. "Nothing I ever heard about. But if anyone would know, it would be Jauffre."

"So we're going then, together?" She was looking straight at me, determined and imploring. So was Baurus; they were both awaiting my answer.

"Well..." I hadn't asked for any of this. I had my own agenda up top. Or...did I? All I did was steal to live, and even then all I had was that hovel on the Waterfront. Life was normal, boring, and mundane. Did I want to trek miles to Chorrol holding a priceless artifact? No. Did I want to return to the normal, everyday life of routine? Not exactly. I sighed. "Fine. Yes, I'll go, at least to Weynon Priory."

Baurus seemed to relax. "Good, good. Look, I'll give you the key to the Sewers. There are rats and goblins down there, but nothing I think you two can't handle." He paused his rummaging through his pockets and narrowed his eyes. He pointed at Dione. "I'm guessing...you're a monk." He turned to me. "And you're in the Mage class, right?"

Dione shrugged. "You're close enough."

Not exactly, but not too far off. "Same here." I echoed.

He chuckled a little. "Thought so. Here's the key." He handed it to Dione. "You two better get moving. I'll stay here to guard the Emperor's body. I hope his trust was well placed."

Dione nodded to him, but I wasn't so sure. We climbed through the newly-opened hole in the wall, and headed towards the sewers.


	2. Too Much To Eat?

_**Chapter Two, dug up from the archives! Enjoy!**_

"Fresh air!" I gasped, stumbling out of the iron grating.

"Indeed." Dione stepped out gracefully, and looked over Lake Rumare with a measured calm. "It is good to feel the wind again." Yes, it made sense that a Wood Elf would miss the free air. "We must go to Weynon Priory."

The thought of trekking there right out of the sewers wearing these threadbare rags made me wrinkle my nose. "Not right away. I have a house on the Waterfront. I can get you a better bow there and we can get some better clothes and armor."

She frowned and looked down at her bow. "Well, I want to get to the Priory as quick as possible...but I guess it only makes sense to take a small detour."

'Only makes sense.' Was that some sort of praise? I rolled my eyes and sighed. This Elf was...well...too boring. Again, why was I doing this? I didn't even know her. She was so honor bound that she would probably deliver the Amulet even if I decided to ditch her. So...why not?

The image of the Emperor's dead body on the ground flashed before my eyes and I cringed. It had been his last request...that we do it together. And even if I didn't like the Elf, she wasn't terrible. I was honor bound to fulfill a dying wish, and it certainly wasn't that far to Chorrol.

Sighing, I walked forward a bit and turned to see the large round wall of the Imperial City Prison. "We shouldn't go through the city. We might be recognized as prisoners with these clothes."

"Oh, I know the path to the Waterfront. I take daily walks around the city walls." She said cheerfully. "It should be this way." Somehow, I was not surprised that Miss Dione Goody-two-shoes took routine walks along the city wall.

I followed her up the hill towards the wall of the prison, and from there she went around it until she came to a little valley that formed under a city bridge. "There's the path." Indeed, there was a little spindly dirt path etched along the ground. We descended into the valley and started following it southward.

The air was clean, and the sky was a clear blue. I could swear that Dione was humming a little as we walked.

"How old are you?" She said suddenly.

"Uh, seventeen." Why was she curious about that now?

She nodded. "It's hard to tell human ages. That's young for your race, isn't it?"

I shrugged, though she was walking ahead of me and couldn't see it. "It is, but some girls are married off by my age."

"I see." She said no more, only kept walking.

"Well, how old are you?"

"78." She replied easily. I blinked. She looked thirty, at most. I guess elves really did just age slow.

We didn't talk much after that, and soon enough the crescent shape of the Waterfront loomed in front of us. We walked down to the shore and looked out over the area.

"Well, we shouldn't swim. There are too many slaughterfish in the lake." Said Dione.

I shook my head. "Nine times out of ten, you're fine." She raised a brow at me and I rolled my eyes. "I'm joking! I have a water walking spell. It lasts for thirty seconds so we're going to have to run."

She looked at the water with distaste and then nodded. "Okay."

I casted it on her first, and then me. We stepped onto the water and our feet only sank into it an inch. It was wobbly to walk on, but pretty stable. We ran on it as fast as we could, but Dione was faster than me. She made it to the shore just fine, but I was far enough away that I got entirely soaked when I fell in. The water was freezing!

I grumbled as I sloshed out of the lake, and Dione was trying to hide a small smile.

I rolled my eyes at her and wrung out my hair. "At least I got some sewer gunk off of me. Here, my house is this way."

I caught her looking around as we walked through the 'residential' area of the Waterfront. Thankfully, she was dressed like a beggar. The people here knew me, but they weren't too trusting of strangers.

I caught Jair looking at us with curiosity. "Good evening, Jair."

He tipped his ragged hat at me. "Evenin' milady." His eyes drifted to Dione.

"This is a friend of mine, we're just stopping by. Anything new with Christophe?"

He shook his head. "No, milady. It's been quiet round here."

I nodded. "Okay, thanks. You have a good night."

He nodded back.

As we kept walking, Dione whispered in my ear. "Don't we not want people to be paying attention to us?"

I laughed, making her frown at me. "Dione, this is the Waterfront. None of the people here are going to go tattling to the guards. And besides, I wanted someone to be able to tell Christophe I wasn't dead."

"Who's Christophe?"

I shrugged. "He's sort of my boss. But that doesn't matter right now. Like you said, we need to get to the Priory as soon as possible." I didn't want to talk about my 'job' with her right now. I knew she didn't like thievery.

"Your boss lives on the Waterfront?" She asked, voice full of caution.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, is that a crime?"

"No, but stealing is."

I stopped abruptly and let my shoulders slump, groaning. "Really, are you going to discriminate now?" I turned on my heel to look at her.

She crossed her arms. "It's not discrimination, it's common morality. You're not supposed to take things that belong to other people."

I clenched my jaw. Was she blind? Was she not looking around? These people were suffering at the hand of the city, of life, of circumstances, and all she cared about was common morality? I pursed my lips. "Jail's father was thrown in prison when he was four for possessing skooma, and given a sentence of three years. Three years for having skooma in his possession. Is that fair? Is that common morality? His father died of disease in that prison, and his jobless mother had to take care of him. Is it any wonder why he took to pickpocketing? That's how he put food on the table."

Dione's face was hard, and she kept her arms crossed close to her, as if for protection. Protection from what, the truth? I turned and gestured to Carwen, who was wincing as a young one was squalling in her ear. She was bobbing it up and down in an effort to calm it. "And Carwen? She takes care of Adanrel's baby while she's out doing whatever she can to get money. And I mean whatever she can, Dione. People who can't steal find other ways to offer their 'skills.' Carwen herself was an orphan, only way to take care of herself was to take from the kind of people who threw out their extra veal because they had too much food."

I felt my teeth grind together, and I turned on my heel to continue walking to my house. I heard Dione's light footsteps follow me. "Too much food." I whispered under my breath. "I once heard a child on the waterfront ask her mother how people could ever have 'too much food.'"

She said nothing behind me. Either she was silently seething, or she was feeling sorry.

The door of my house suddenly loomed at us and I opened it with a key. I held the door open for Dione, and when she walked past me, the air felt like ice.

I rolled my eyes and started lighting the wall sconces with fire magic. "You'll find weapons in the chest to your right, and clothes and armor in the chest by the fireplace."

I heard the squeak of metal hinges and found her rummaging around in the weapons chest. "This is a better bow than what I have now." It was still iron, but it wasn't completely covered in rust. She found a quiver full of steel arrows too, and exchanged her gear.

"Here, take this." I threw some fur armor over to her a little roughly, followed by the boots and gauntlets.

"Thank you."

I grabbed my Robe of Defense from my bed and quickly changed into it, throwing my prison clothes into the fireplace, and tossing the Amulet onto my pillow. Then, taking a key from a hole above my bed, I bent down and opened the long, narrow chest I kept under my bed, pulling out my two most treasured possessions.

One was my mother's necklace. The pendant was plain and circular, and had a purple tinted spherical stone set in the middle. The chain must have snapped at one point in her life, because the gold pendant was hanging from a newer looking, silver chain. I slipped it over my head and under the neck of my robes, before Dione could see. The second item was my fifteenth birthday present, the Wabbajack. I held the spindly shaft in my hand and smiled. So many good times.

I left everything of importance in my house when I went thieving. How could I not, at the rate at which I got caught?

"Okay, are we ready?" Asked Dione as she looked up at me, lips drawn into a hard line.

I groaned. "I guess so..."

"As soon as we get the Amulet to the Priory, we can be done with this. Do you have the Amulet?"

I looked at where I had dumped the Amulet on my pillow. "Yeah." I picked it up and put it in a pack that was lying on the floor. "Let's take some food." I put some bread and cheese and brandy into the bag along with the Amulet and slung it onto my shoulder. "That should be good."

"Alright, let's go." She said, voice failing to be cheerful.

"Let's go..." I sighed, and followed her out of the door.

We returned to the path we had been on, and eventually found the main road out of the city. We passed Weye, and turned onto the Red Ring Road. The sun creeped upwards over our heads, and was beating down on us as we stood at a signpost at an intersection.

My hair was no longer damp from the lake, as the sun had long since dried it. I was sweating now under my robes, and I felt like I was getting a sunburn. Not only that, but I was still nettled at Dione for being so one-sided in her beliefs. Not all thieves want to be thieves. Frowning, I remembered her raised brow and crossed arms. Who was she to criticize the way we lived on the waterfront?

A crow cawed above my head and I looked back up at its fat, black body. It was circling us like we were food, every feather outlined against the bright sky.

"...thieving."

I blinked and looked at Dione. It was clear she had said something to me while she was looking at the sign-post.

"What?"

She looked over at me, narrow brown eyes catching the sunlight. She blinked the sunbeams away like a well-fed feline. "What made you turn to thieving?" Her voice was calm, and held the right amount of honest inflection to indicate that she was truthfully curious. Had this topic been weighing on her mind as heavily as it had weighed on mine?

Overcoming my surprise, I shrugged, looking back up at the signpost as she had done a moment before. The word Chorrol was scratched into the wood in as fine a script as was possible, and yellow paint had been applied to the indents to make the name stand out.

"My mother died." I said simply.

"And you had nothing to inherit from her?" Dione asked quietly.

I shook my head, a wry smile creeping up my lips. "She had debts. They took the house, they took everything."

I saw her head nod from the corner of my eye. "I am sorry for that."

"It's not your fault." I said automatically.

She shook her head, and looked at me. "I am sorry that I judge quickly. I'm sorry that it's hard for me to understand you."

I met her eyes. She was truthful, she wasn't lying. Perhaps I should have picked up on the fact that Dione wasn't the one to lie. So far I had realized that she was practical, quiet, morally obligated, and a bit too innocent, but I actually hadn't pondered the truth of her words. Maybe I was just so used to dishonest people, or maybe I wasn't a trusting person. But either way, the fact that this Wood Elf was not a liar was staring me in the face.

"Thank you." I finally managed to say.

She nodded, and without further communication, we set off down the Black Road.


	3. Oblivion is Way Too Hot

_**Last chapter in my spree of posting. If it looks interesting, tell me and I'll keep on posting!**_

It was raining. How often did it rain in central Cyrodiil? Perhaps it was just our immense bad luck. We had run into bandits, had our boots pulled off multiple times by the sticky mud, and ran out of food, all in the last ten hours.

"Now is really not the time for a storm, Sheogorath." I muttered under my breath. Sharp lightning split the sky and I rolled my eyes. "Always the drama queen."

"What did you say?" Dione yelled over the wind.

I shook my head. "Nothing!"

How far away from Chorrol were we? We had walked all day and it should take only about that to make it there. Even assuming that the rain had slowed us down, we must be pretty close.

As if answering my thoughts, Dione pointed and shouted, "Look, that must be it!"

I squinted my eyes and through the haze of rain I could make out the outline of a building. Spurred on by the discovery of shelter, we ran, feet slapping ot the muddy ground. Dione grabbed the door handle and wrenched it open, and we both jumped inside for cover.

Two monks were sitting at a table, conversing with one another. When we entered, they both looked at us, and the older one rose to address us.

"Can we help you, or are you just here to escape the weather?"

I shook my head, trying to catch my breath. "We are here to speak to Jauffre." The older man exchanged a look with the younger one before gesturing to the stairs. "You'll find him upstairs, in his study."

Dione smiled and nodded to him, and big wet droplets fell from her pale brown hair and onto the floor. "Thank you."

With that out of the way, we awkwardly took to the steps to the second level and glanced around.

"This way." Dione whispered and pointed to the right. I followed her into an office-like space which held a desk, and a gray haired man in monk robes. He was writing on some parchment, neck straight and back posed as if he had taken high class calligraphy lessons. Dione glanced at me and stepped forward. "Hello."

He looked up, eyes glancing over us with interest. "Hello. I'm Brother Jauffre. May I help you?" It was like meeting Dione all over again. I felt an aversion to the lawfulness and piety in the man's features.

"Well, it's a long story..." Dione turned to me for help. I raised my eyebrow and threw my palms out in protest. What had I to tell that was better than what she could say? However, she didn't relent, and I rolled my eyes in frustration.

"We have the Amulet of Kings." I said with distaste.

Immediately, the man lost all of his manner and became a battle-ready warrior in his seat. His eyes were alight, his back was even straighter than before, and his arms and fists were deathly tense. "What? That cannot be! Only the Emperor is allowed to handle the Amulet of Kings!"

I held up my palms in defense before rummaging through my pack and tossing the Amulet over to the man. It twisted in mid air and Dione gasped. Jauffre caught it out of the air and fixed me with a hard look of chastisement before examining the royal artifact. I shrugged and sighed.

"By the Nine, this is the Amulet of Kings." He whispered to himself, turning it over in his palms. Suddenly, his bright gaze turned onto Dione and then onto me, like a knife. "Who are you, how did you get this?" He demanded.

"We were there when the Emperor died." Dione replied calmly, her face hiding the apprehension that I was now feeling. We should have made Baurus come with us.

"What do you know of the Emperor's death?" He asked, rising from his seat to loom at us.

Something agitated me, and I didn't know what. Maybe I was tired of this man's raised voice, or maybe I just didn't like how he was yelling at Dione when it wasn't her fault. Or...me, for that matter. Not stopping to think of why it bothered me that he was pestering Dione more than myself, I stepped forward.

"The Emperor's escape route ran through the prison cell Dione and I were in. I was there for stealing, and she was there because of some mix up with the watch." She glanced at me curiously, but I avoided her gaze. "We followed them out of the sewers. Captain Renult and Glenroy were killed by the assassins, but Baurus survived. We were taken by surprise, and the Emperor gave us the Amulet of Kings and told us to 'close shut the jaws of Oblivion' and 'defeat the Prince of Destruction' before he was killed. And...well, then Baurus told us to go find you." I shrugged. "That's the short of it."

He sighed, and then sat down once more. "As unlikely as your story sounds, I believe you." Dione exhaled in relief. "Only the strange destiny of Uriel Septim could have brought you to me carrying the Amulet of Kings."

That's it, he was going to believe me? How in Nirn did he justify it, other than 'Well, the Emperor was just a strange guy'?

He continued. "The Prince of Destruction he referred to was none other than-"

"Mehrunes Dagon." I supplied, almost absent-mindedly.

He frowned. "Yes, you are correct. He is one of the lords of the demonic worlds of Oblivion. The Emperor's words, 'close shut the jaws of Oblivion,' certainly seemed to suggest that he perceived some threat from Oblivion." He sighed and studied his desk, his face twisted up in thought. "Of course, this is all conjecture."

I nodded and seated myself at a chair across from the desk. "All the scholars agree that the mortal world is protected from the Daedra of Oblivion by magical barriers."

He sighed. "Yes, that is true. However, only the Emperors truly know everything about the properties of those barriers. The Amulet of Kings is ancient. St. Alessia herself received it from the Gods. It is a holy relic of great power. When an Emperor is crowned, he uses the Amulet to light the Dragonfires in the Temple of the One in the Imperial City. With the Emperor dead, and no new air crowned, the dragonfires in the temple will be dark...for the first time in centuries."

Dione, too, sat down across from Jauffre. "Are those two things connected?" She asked with curiosity.

"It may be that the dragonfires protected us from a threat that only the Emperor was aware of."

Suddenly, I remembered another thing that the Emperor said to us, that I forgot to mention in my recount of our escape through the tunnels. "What of the Emperor's last son? He told us that you could help us find him."

Jauffre gave a bitter smile. "I am one of the few that know of his existence. Many years ago, I served as Captain of Uriel's bodyguard. One night, Uriel called me into his chambers. A baby boy lay sleeping in a basket. Uriel told me to deliver him somewhere safe. He never told me anything else about the baby, but I knew it was his son. From time to time, he would ask about the child's progress. Now it seems that this...illegitimate son is the heir to the Septim throne. If he yet lives."

An ominous air filled the silence between us. It was true, what if the assassins had somehow learned of the son's existence? He may already be dead, lying in a pool of the most precious blood in all of Tamriel.

"Where can we find him?" Asked Dione, voice sober.

Jauffre smiled, and this time, his voice was softer. "His name is Martin. He is a priest in the chapel of Akatosh in Kvatch." He stood. "You two must go to Kvatch and retrieve Martin at once, and bring him here."

I rose from my seat in alarm. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. The Emperor never said anything about going around doing the bidding of the Blades. I promised to take you the Amulet, and that's it."

Jauffre fixed me with a blank stare, as if he didn't understand a word I was saying. "The Emperor chose you and Dione for a reason. You are now caught up in his fate, wherever it may lead."

I crossed my arms. "The only reason we were the ones who brought you the Amulet is because we were both, at _random_ , in a cell that _just happened_ to lead out of the city on the _specific day_ the Emperor was assassinated. That isn't fate, that's...that's chance!"

Jauffre only shook his head at me, like he pitied my thinking. "The Divines put you and Dione in that cell for a reason. You were meant to be there. Like it or not, you are bound to find the Emperor's son."

My eyes narrowed. "What if I don't believe in the Divines?"

Dione turned her head sharply to frown at me, while the old monk only sighed. "Well, that's too bad, child, for they evidently believe in you."

My cheeks flushed against my will and I clenched my fists. What was I supposed to say to that? Hmph...the Divines had done less for me than the Daedra had.

"Please come." Implored Dione. Her eyes were wide, and she tried to smile at me encouragingly.

Now I was ganged up on. I couldn't possibly refuse...I nodded tersely.

Jauffre nodded. "Good. I have some resources here for traveling Blades that you may take from." He walked over to a chest at the side of the room and unlocked it. "Help yourself to whatever you need."

Dione was the first to rummage through it, trading her iron bow for a steel one and restocking her arrow supply. When I dug through it, I just took some magicka potions.

"Your first priority should be to go to Kvatch and find Martin..." He glanced out of the window, and the harsh howling of wind could be heard. "Of course, it would only be wise to put that off until the morning, at the latest."

At the latest? Well, at least that meant we could rest a little.

"Brother Piner!" Jauffre called. The young monk came dashing up the stairs in eagerness. "Will you get these women some spare robes to throw on while their clothes dry by the fire?"

The young man looked to both of us, but his eyes lingered for a moment on Dione, and if I wasn't mistaken, he blushed.

"Of course, Brother Jauffre." He hurried away down the stairs.

The older monk sighed. "Brother Piner is always so eager. Still, eagerness is an attribute sought by the Divines." If there was a hint in that, I was determined to ignore it. "There are beds in the opposite side of the floor for you to rest in, once you change."

Footsteps on wood were heard once more, and Brother Piner appeared with two fluffy brown robes in his arms.

I took the one off the top, and he handed the other one to Dione. "H-here you are, my lady."

My lady? I repressed a snort and settled for a smirk. Poor Piner, Dione didn't seem to notice at all. Then again, priests weren't supposed to be attracted to people, were they?

"You can change in my study." Offered Jauffre, holding the door to another room open to us. We slipped inside and shut it behind us.

Our clothes were definitely still damp, and it was a wonder I hadn't noticed it too badly before. I peeled my mage robes off with a grimace and tossed them to the floor. Dione's armor was just as wet, and landed with a squishy thud onto the floorboards.

Well, the monk robes sure were fluffy. I grabbed mine and smiled at the soft texture. Was it made with rabbit skin? I shrugged and started to slip it on.

I barked with laughter when the robes had finished falling over my face, for in front of me Dione was standing in a sea of brown robes, hands engulfed in sleeves.

"What!" She exclaimed, cheeks reddening. "Yours is too big too!" It was a true statement, but she was more slight than I.

I clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle my laughs.

"Oh, you be quiet. At least I'm not the one who said they don't believe in the Divines."

I paused, all laughter lost in my belly.

She looked down to the floor. "I'm sorry, that was harsh...I just...don't understand how you don't believe in them."

I shrugged. "It's not like I don't believe that they exist, but they've never done anything for me."

"Have you asked?" She asked simply.

I turned to her in disbelief. "Of course I've asked! I turned to thieving to fill my belly and stole the key to my 'house' from the Imperial Commerce Center to have a roof over my head. Don't you think I've asked the gods a thousand times for help?"

I shook my head. "No, they did nothing. But as soon as I made a pilgrimage to Nocturnal's shrine, I knew there was someone who would look after me." I felt the Skeleton Key against my skin where I had hidden it.

Dione looked horrified. "The Daedra don't look after people! They only help people if you work for them, if you...do things for them!"

I snorted. "Of course. That's how life is, Dione. You scratch one person's back, they scratch yours. That's all life has turned out to be for me, so why should I expect anything less than that from my gods?"

She crossed her arms, eyebrows pulled together tightly. "The Daedra don't understand common morality. They-"

There were three short knocks against the wooden door to the study.

Dione sighed. "Come in."

It was the poor Brother Piner again. "I-I can put your clothes at the fire, l-ladies." As he talked, his eyes were only on Dione.

What was wrong with me, anyway? Why was he only attracted to her? It was my bloody hair, wasn't it? I was gifted at birth with raven and gold hair, alternating in mad stripes. Sheogorath's idea, certainly. One of my eyes was gold, and the other was my mother's hue, a rich blue.

"Thank you! Brother Piner was it?"

"Yes!" The man responded, voice cracking. It took all of my power not to burst into laughter. He cleared his throat. "Yes, my lady."

She smiled. "My name is Dione, and my friend here is Elune."

He stared at her. "Hello." He finally seemed to remember his task. "Oh!" He hurried over to the piles of clothes and gathered them up in his arms. "Excuse me." At this, he waddled out of the room, laden with our soggy apparel.

After he left, Dione laughed. "He's dear, isn't he?"

"Oh yes, very dear indeed." I said sarcastically. "Come on, let's get some sleep."

Dione looked down at her stomach. "I don't know, I think I'm going to see if there is anything to eat downstairs."

I shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll just go to bed."

She frowned. "You don't want me to bring you up anything?" I shook my head. I was used to being hungry, and I was more tired than anything else. "Well, okay. Goodnight then." She left the room and went downstairs, and I thanked my lucky stars that she didn't bring up the Daedra again.

I found the beds and chose the cleanest looking one before slipping into it. The covers were scratchy, but it wasn't too bad.

A high pitched howling sounded outside as the wind flew through empty tree branches. I smiled softly. I loved the sound of storms. It was a shame that there wasn't any lightning now, for I liked to listen to thunder as I slept. In Leyawiin, there had been vast thunderstorms every year starting around Sun's Height. Mother used to take me out to see the large streaks of lighting, and we would count how far away the storm was by waiting for the thunder.

 _"One, two, three...There it is my little one! Three, that is how far away our Lord is from us. He is always close by, you see?"_

I closed my eyes tightly, but the memory escaped nonetheless. I sighed, and resolved to think of nothing more before sleep took me.

* * *

"Wake up, Elune." Dione was shaking my shoulder and I groaned. "The sun is up, we should start to Kvatch. Here are your clothes." I felt something thrown on my torso. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up.

Dione was already dressed, looking as cheerful as ever. I rolled my eyes and tore the monk robes off, replacing them with my mage robes. "There, I'm ready."

"No, you're not. You should brush your hair." Her arms were crossed and she was looking at my head quizzically.

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. "There, it's fine, I'll just tie it up." I untied the piece of ribbon that kept my robe tight at the top of my neck and used it to pull my hair up in a bun. "Okay, let's go."

I hopped up and threw the covers over. "The faster we get Martin here, the faster we put this all behind us."

She just sighed, reaching over to make the bed. "We were chosen to help put the Empire back together, perhaps even to save Tamriel, and you wish to be rid of it all."

I shrugged. "Why not?"

Dione just shook her head. "Prior Maborel lent us his horse. He also packed up some provisions for our trip."

"Good, good." I hurried down the steps and grabbed the door handle.

"What about your breakfast?" Dione yelled after me. I glanced around and spotted a wedge of cheese on the table. I grabbed it.

"There, breakfast."

As I left Weynon, I heard Dione mutter in exasperation behind me, "By the Nine..."

* * *

"Is that an encampment?" Why would there ever be an encampment outside of a city?

"It...looks like it." Dione looked just as puzzled as I was.

A man ran towards us, and on closer inspection, I found that he was Altmer.

"Run!" He screamed. "Run while you can!" He stopped in front of us, gasping for air.

"They opened in the night, huge gates to Oblivion!" Hysteria edged into his voice. "Savlian Mattius says he can hold the road, but I don't believe him, I don't believe him! I saw Oblivion with my own eyes!" He sucked in lungfulls of air to fuel his screaming. "I'm getting out of here while I still can, the daedra will be coming any minute, any minute!" With that, he took off sprinting down the road.

I looked up at the sky, which was turning a deep, sickly red. "What in the name of Sheogorath..."

Dione jumped off of the horse, and I followed suit. "They knew he was here..."

I shook my head. "But how?"

Leading Maborel's horse to a tree, she tied its reigns. "I don't know, but they did. We need to talk to the person in charge, the Mattius person that was holding the road."

I agreed, but I didn't necessarily want to get any closer to that red light. I sighed. "Okay." We headed up the road, and passed a mumbling priest on the way. What was causing everyone to go mad?

The answer was soon upon us. We turned a corner and saw it. Out of the earth sprouted teeth as black as night, and in them churned a gaping scarlet maw of flame. Beings ran forward—scamps—and the soldiers were trying to hold them off.

"Elune, do you think you could help them fight those things while I talk to Mattius?"

I didn't want to, but what else was I to do? I readied a shock spell and nodded, hurrying in front of the barriers.

The scamps were easy to pick off, and they came in waves. They were weak to frost, and it only took one snowball spell each to down them.

A guard saw me from the side. "Finally, some help! It's hell holding these things off!"

There was a break in the tide, and the tired soldiers ran back behind the barrier. They must have experienced these lulls thousands of times, they probably cherished them. Suddenly, as I looked at the faces of the soldiers, I realized that they were all going to die, at some time or another. They couldn't hold the road forever, the crazy Altmer had been right.

We don't use the word crazy, dear. We say a person is 'mad.' My mothers voice suddenly invaded my mind and I pushed it away. What would happen when there was no one here to stop the daedra?

Dione ran up to me, and something in her face made me wary. "He said Martin is in the Chapel, if he's still alive. I volunteered us to close the gate, so that they could get in and clear out the survivors."

I blanched. "You did what?"

She threw her arms up into the air. "What was I supposed to do! We need to close the gate and they don't have enough men to send in again!"

I glared at her for a moment before turning my gaze towards the gate. The heat waves rolled off of it thickly like invisible billows of smoke. "In all honesty, the Emperor was facing you when he said 'close shut the jaws of Oblivion.'" I had to shout to be heard over the sickening whine coming from that portal to hell.

Dione's normally slanted Wood Elf eyes were wider than I'd ever seen, and they stayed trained on the Oblivion gate even as her head turned in my direction. "In all fairness, you were the one he gave the Amulet of Kings to."

In all fairness. I snorted. Even as we stared into Oblivion-fire, Dione still used that word. "Fine, then you close the gate while I grab Martin. I mean, it looks like there's enough room to slip through the manhole."

At this, Dione finally looked at me. "Elune, the man is a priest devoted to his people. Do you really think he would abandon his post without clear knowledge that the gate had been closed?" Her voice left no doubt, as if she believed that all priests were unendingly devoted to their gods. I didn't answer, just looked away from the too-innocent elf. She went on. "No, we should close the gate together. That's how we got into this, isn't it?"

The answer was so obvious to her, why wasn't it to me? I didn't want to go in there, but I suppose, neither did she. I sighed. "As you wish, then." I grabbed the Wabbajack from my back. "And if we both die in there, Sheogorath preserve the whole of Tamriel." And then, I ran. I ran into that hellgate with Dione by my side and I knew that this was by far the maddest thing I'd ever done in my entire life.

* * *

The land was awash in fire and flame. A few scamps spotted us, but Dione picked them off before they got near. I could see the remains of several Kvatch guards. It seems they had been picked off before they could do much of anything. In the distance I saw a tall tower, and I pointed to it. "Want to head that way?"

She shrugged. "Why not?"

The terrain was pretty easy, and there were only a few scamps to deal with. Dione picked them all off and I turned to her. "Are you going to give me anything to do?"

She smiled grimly. "I didn't think you'd want anything to do."

I smirked. "Right on all accounts." Soon we entered the tower from a large and conspicuous door. "Well, I think we're in the right place." I glanced up at the red light. "So, we go up?"

She nodded. "We go up."

Grime covered my face and I could feel heat in my cheeks from exertion. I looked over at Dione and winced. I probably looked as bad as her! Sweat dripped from her hair and from her chin, and her pale face was covered in black gunk. This looked like the top of the tower, but there were two Dremora guarding the ramp up to the energy source.

"I'll take the one with the robe, as long as you can get a headshot on the one with armor." She nodded, and knocked an arrow. "One...two...three!" I charged out of our cover and towards the robed Dremora. Behind me I heard the sound of an arrow being loosed, but I had no way of knowing if it had hit it's mark.

I brought up the Wabbajack and smacked aside the scamp the Dremora had summoned. I ducked under his conjured mace and swung the staff over my head. The tip of it planted in his face and he stumbled. I tightened my grip on the shaft and pelted his torso with a hard swing. He gasped, the wind knocked out of him. One more hard crack on his head, and he crumpled.

I turned to see that the other Dremora had been taken care of. Dione gave me a weak thumbs up. "Come on, we're almost there." She nodded and we stumbled up the weird red membrane walkway.

The whine was much stronger up here, and it felt like it was penitrating my eardrums. The source seemed to be a red orb suspended in the middle of flame. I looked at Dione, and she shook her head to tell me she had no idea what to do. I approached it, but saw no lever to turn it off. All of the energy was concentrated on the orb. Maybe if I removed it, the energy would collapse, and so would the gate? I reached out towards it.

Dione grabbed my arm, eyes wide with alarm. "It's the only way I can think of!" I tried to shout at her. I didn't know if she could hear, but she let go of me anyway. With a deep breath, I reached into the flame.

The heat scourged my skin and I kept my scream in my throat through some strength I didn't know I had. My hands clasped the orb and I wrenched it free. The world seemed to explode with fire, and red was the last thing that I saw.

 _ **Tell me what you guys think! Yea or Nay? Thanks for reading!**_


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